The official blog of Meria Carstarphen, superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools

Are You Ready for APS Football?

Atlanta Public Schools kicked off the football season in huge fashion on Saturday as our Department of Athletics played host to the 2015 High School Classic at Lakewood Stadium.

The Carver Eagle Band takes a break from performing at the High School Classic.

As superintendent and a football fan myself, it has been a great thrill for me over the past few weeks to meet with the student athletes, their coaches, managers and trainers and actually get to train and run patterns with them. I not only worked with the football players, but I played with high school bands and practiced routines with cheerleaders (In case you missed those entries, click here, here, here and here!)

But then it adds to the excitement to see all of them put their training and practice into action on the field and during the halftime performances. I had the chance to not only watch two games from the sidelines with the players but dance with the bands and learn routines with the cheerleaders! (Board Member Eshe’ Collins picked up the video evidence of both the dancing and the cheerleading.)

Our student athletes competed in three of the four featured games of the day and showed great heart and sportsmanship along with their skills. I couldn’t be more proud of all of them. Also a great thanks to Jasper Jewell, our athletic director, and his team for a wonderful event.

Among the results: Our Grady Knights bested our Washington Bulldogs by a score of 40 to 13. Our Carver Panthers fought hard against their namesake school from Columbus before losing 28 to 24. Finally, our Mays Raiders, who were state runners-up last year, got their season started with a win over Langston Hughes High of Fairburn, Georgia.